Sparks
by Preaching Red
Summary: An easy mission gone bust by an unknown cause sparks love between an unlikely pair.


**A/N:**

**This story has been sitting in my files for a long time, and now that I have finally found the balls to sign up, I figured I'd post it. It is a one shot, so it's done. I edited the story a bit, more towards the end, for any returning readers I added a teaser in the last half of the story, for new readers enjoy the improved version.  
Disclaimer: I don't own any public works, and if I owned Teen Titans, the show never would have stopped airing**

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A man watches the city from atop a skyscraper. He loved coming up here. He loved the feeling of peace and serenity it gave him. He could watch anything unfold at anytime. He could watch the Titians jail Plasmus, and watch Mad Mod try to rob a bank at the same time. He could also locate anything in the city. Like for instance, his next hit. He was wealthy, his job had guaranteed him that, but he was what some would call a thrill junkie, someone who likes to live on the edge. That was why his occupation made perfect sense. What that occupation was, well you will have to find out. However, it was very expensive to be him, so he needed a way to get many things for free. There was only one answer, thievery.

Yes, he was Red X, self-proclaimed best thief in Jump City. However, no one had ever caught him in his devious acts, well apart from one time. So the title was a little self-proclaimed. Okay, all self-proclaimed, but, the best nonetheless. His suit was low on fuel, and he couldn't stop at a gas station and 'fill up'. No, unlike gas prices, which were steadily rising, his fuel was the most expensive, and couldn't go down in price. Now, where would he find the money to 'fill up'? That is simple, he doesn't have to; he can steal it.

This brings us to a pitch-black area, rather small. So small it wasn't even a room, it was the rafters. A normal person would be deterred by the lack of light, but not him, he could see perfectly. For his mask had built in night vision. He crawled stealthily through the rafters, looking through each vent that he passed, praying that he would find his room fast. He did, sort of. After 10 minutes of sneaking and crawling and aching, he finally made it to his destination.

Now, he knew better than to just jump down and shout bonsai and shoot explosives and watch everything go kablooie. He had taken some inspiration from spider-man, and had built a sort of webbing. It was made out of the same material as his X-glue, but it was thin like a spider web. He slowly lowered himself into the room. As soon as his head cleared the vent he quickly looked around, seeing nothing but a thermal camera. Red X always came prepared, so he pulled out a sheet of Plexiglas? Yes, Plexiglas, turns out it renders thermal 100% useless! Then he tossed an object down to the ground. Slowly, red gas seeped out of the object. The gas illuminated hundreds of laser beams. Now, instead of trying to get passed them by doing acrobatics and stuff, he pulled out a few mirrors. He carefully placed each in the path of a laser, reflecting the infrared beam, and pointing it into a different direction. Eventually he had cleared a path right to his objective, a nice, lovely Xynothium reactor. This amazing little device could generate perfect Xynothium, with none of the drawbacks, and all of the assets. It was also small enough to fit on his suit, yay! This guaranteed him an inexhaustible supple of his favorite radioactive element. Using his Xynothium blades he cut a hole in the glass casing. He swapped the reactor for a phony, and re-sealed the glass case. No one would notice. Or so he thought.

"Stop right there!" a male voice shouted

"God kid, are you ever gonna hit puberty?" X retorted.

Robin didn't budge, "Titans, GO!"

"Titans, STOP!" Red X shouted, doing his best Robin impression.

The thief almost died laughing when the group of teens actually stopped for a moment, looking confused. When they noticed the laughing thief, they snapped out of it and went into battle. X, seeing the joking was over jumped over a charging green ram, only to be blasted by a half charged sonic blast.

"Hey tinny, are you going soft or did you forget to charge your batteries?" X mocked.

'Tinny', grunted and fired another, _fully_ charged beam. X dodged right, only to roll into a volley of Starbolts, his eyes widened momentarily before he quickly dove forward. Narrowly avoiding the green balls of death. Red X decided it was time to go on the offensive. He shot Beast Boy with one of his glue Xs, effectively sticking him to the ground. He looked at Beast Boy, gloating for a moment on how easy the take down was. He was interrupted mid gloat buy a familiar trio of words,

"Azarath, Metreon, Zint…" But before she could finish her chant, a red x adhesive silenced her.

"Christ Sunshine, you ever gonna learn?" Red X chuckled before being run over bay a green ram.

"Ah, what the hell!" X cried out as he felt the horns crash into his ribcage.

Beast boy immediately morphed into a Lion.

The cat prowled towards the thief, and this got X a little worried.

"Nice kitty." X said, slightly afraid of the big cat.

As the thief was slowly backing away from the 'King of the Jungle.' Starfire flew up behind him. Beast boy saw Starfire silently fly up behind the masked thief. The changeling nodded and lunged at Red X. The thief shouted in surprise and leaped away, just as razor sharp claws cut through the air where he had been moments ago. Red X however, was out of the frying pan and into the fire, as Starfire immediately had him in a full nelson hold. X tried the break out, but she was too strong. Robin wasted no time in rushing over and driving the end of his Bo staff into his stomach. The thief doubled over, clearly in pain. Starfire's face contorted with worry, wondering if this was a bit too brutal. She however did not get the chance to voice her concerns as she felt excruciating pain explode in her right forearm. Robin had been aiming for X's solar plexus, a potentially lethal blow if enough force was imparted. And this being Robin, enough force is always imparted. X however, seeing the danger of the upcoming blow had taken advantage of Starfire's thoughts and twisted her arm do the staff his her forearm, not his important body part. The blow loosened Starfire's grip enough for X to get out. Robin, worried for his friend, attacked Red X in a fit of fury. He jabbed the thief with the staff, but he caught the pole in between his back and the crook of his arms. He swung around, unbalancing the masked hero. The thief was then able to gain position of the staff, and attacked Robin. His team could do nothing but watch. Afraid that a missed shot could hurt their teammate.

"Not so tough without your team are you?" X laughed as he caught Robin under the chin, sending the hero to the ground. Robin spat at him, hatred shown in every feature of his body. The thief sighed, and was winding up, reading a blow to put Robin into unconsciousness when he was tackled with such force he dropped the staff. Whoever had tackled him sure had momentum, because the person carried him all the way to the wall, and then some. The duo smashed through the concrete wall, only to be covered in rubble. Starfire stood up from the wreckage, with a few scratches but with nothing serious. Red X however, did not stand up, he merely groaned. He had not been prepared for that. He was bleeding from shrapnel, aching from broken bones, and a serious concussion.

Starfire looked worriedly at Robin. The hero smiled at her, assuring her that everything was fine. The moment was broken when dust started coming down from the roof.

"Yo dogs, we gotta split. The roof is comin' down!" Cyborg shouted

The team nodded and sprinted for the exit, dodging falling debris and other parts. When they finally made it out Starfire got a horrified look on her face, "What about the Red X?"

Beast boy and Cyborg grimaced, Raven gasped, and Robin looked at the ground.

Robin spoke first, "Don't worry Star, I'm sure he got out okay."

"No, this is all my fault, if I hadn't tackled him into that wall, he would have never gotten hurt and the roof never would have caved in!" Tears were now rolling down her cheeks. The rest of the Titans (Minus Robin) were shocked. They had never lost anyone on a mission before.

Suddenly Raven shouted, "Hang on, I have connected with his mind, he is still with us, but I fear he won't be for much longer."

Starfire wiped her eyes and nodded, the team nodded too, and they ran into the building. They ran through rooms, following Raven. Raven stopped, in front of a large rubble pile, "This is where the spike is the strongest."

The group started digging out the rubble. As they neared the bottom, they started to see the tattered cape, covering up the body. Starfire gasped and dug the rest of the thief out. She looked at Raven and the empath nodded, and she teleported the group back to Titans tower.

_Scene Change_

The group rushed the thief to the infirmary,

"Let's go, he is losing a lot of blood!" Cyborg shouted.

"Help me stop the bleeding!" Raven shouted.

Starfire, unsure of what to do, ran around, getting supplies for anyone who needed it. Eventually, after 1 hour of hell, Red X was finally stable.

_Time skip_

Red X awakened to a white ceiling, he had to squint his eyes because of the glaring light the ceiling of the room emitted. He quickly sat up, trying to figure out where he was. But immediately regretted it, his head swam and his vision darkened as every bone in his body flared in unimaginable pain. X moaned and fell back against the cushy materiel beneath him, trying to get in control of his pain. Throughout his ordeal the thief hadn't noticed that he startled the black-cloaked Titan out of her light slumber. She gracefully stood from he chair and hurried over to him, "What hurts?" She asked urgently, as if the fate of the world depended on it.

X gave her a look that says, '_really?'_

Raven rolled her eyes at the look in the thief's eyes, "Yes really, now tell me."

"Fine," X stated hoarsly, "Here, here, here, and here; oh right, and here." He finished, gesturing to every part of his body.

Raven sighed, "Are you always this disagreeable?"

"When a roof falls on me, it's a habit I have."

"Please try and cooperate. Starfire blames herself you know." Raven said suddenly, now finding her feet extremely interesting.

X's eyes widened at this revelation, "Why? Why does she even care about me?"

"Because she's Starfire, and because she says that if she hadn't tackled you then you would not have been hurt, and the roof never would have come down." Raven explained, making eye contact with the thief

X inwardly squirmed under her piercing glance, but kept his cool in favor of staying the machine Boy Wonder thought he was.

"We were all worried, none of us have ever gone through something like that, and it was scary." Raven admitted sadly, her gaze falling to the floor once again.

Red X was shocked, "You…you care about me?"

"Yes, well…no, but I mean… I" Raven struggled with her words.

X let out a raspy chuckle that ended with a pained moan. This earned him a glare from Raven, at first out of annoyance and then out of sympathy.

"Let me ease the pain." The dark Titan almost begged

"How?"

"I can split the pain between me and you." Raven said this as if it was nothing, like she did it everyday.

"Raven I can't let you do that!" Red X gasped in shock at her method. He was expected some fancy machine dreamt up by Cyborg

Raven's own eyes widened in surprise, that was the first time he had called her by her name. But she shrugged it off saying, "It's not a big deal, I've done it before."

"Raven, you… you care for me. No one else, not even Bats has done that." Red X said, though he was weak, he managed to sound as dignified as possibly.

Raven found herself deep in thought about the thief's latest statement, who was this 'Bats'? But she pushed these thoughts aside in favor of helping the thief in front of her.

Raven was about to go and get the rest of the Titans when X stopped her,

"Hey Raven?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for caring."

Raven found herself bewildered again by the enigmatic thief. The man sitting on the bed in front her was so kind, yet he was one of the bad guys, a villain. Why did she feel drawn to him?Drawn into his mystery and mood swings, as well as his apparently troubled past? Raven decided to visit Nevermore later, but for now she would get the rest of the group.

X waited patiently for the rest of the group. He let his mind wander; he was surprised when he found himself thinking about Raven. The 'dark one' of the Titans, yet she did not seem so dark. She seemed to put up a dark façade to hide a caring, beautiful girl. She intrigued him, and he wanted to know her better. A whoosh told him the door had opened, and Starfire obscured the entrance. The Tamaranian rushed in and enveloped him in a huge hug. He enjoyed the attention, but gasped in pain. Starfire immediately let go and quickly apologized. He brushed it off, saying it was nothing.

"How are you doin' man?" Cyborg asked

"Outside of the pain, I feel broken."

"Thought so."

"Yo, Glad to see you in the land of the living." Beast boy commented cheekily as he walked in

"Shut it grass stain." Both Red X and Raven said at the same time.

Raven blushed and X smiled at her. This would be fun. Cyborg however, noticed the little exchange and grinned, '_looks like our little Rae-Rae discovered boys'_

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**A/N:**

**How was the fight scene? I struggle with those. This was originally a part of one of my longer stories, but it looked so good alone I made it a 1 shot. Hit the review button and give me some feedback, it doesn't take a lifetime. I'm also thinking about writing another story, this one long and with multiple chapters. The only way that I will have the confidence to write is if I get reviews on my writing**


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